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Mar 19, 2011

Lisa added it

in a sentence: A story based journey with Kit Watson through the semi-dream/semi-reality experience in his family's hometown during his Grandfather's final times.

The story begins simply enough, with the coming home again to support a Grandfather during the loss of his Grandmother. We journey with Kit as he starts a new school, meets new people, and uncovers a plethora of family history within this small town that goes back hundreds of years. There is a genuine goodness in Kit, and a More...

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Feb 13, 2010

Ricky rated it:

This book is amazing; the story is creative very dark and dappled with light throughout and moved towards a wonderful creative ending. The story is original and wonderfully crafted together, showing the brilliance of David Almond writing skills. After reading Skellig I thought how could David Almond ever match this book, but he proved me wrong; he not only matched it he may have just surpassed it. As the story progresses Kit (the main character in the book) starts to write a story that links int More...

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Oct 04, 2011

Sarah rated it:

This was a really interesting book. I've heard it compared to some of Robert Cormier's books but I'm not really sure they're that similar. They're both rather dark but I wouldn't say they're are that closely tied. I really liked that we are given the ending before the beginning. It gave me some comfort as my anxiety increased as Kit entered the mine with Bobby. I think that it adds a little bit of intrigue to know that they come back out into the light safe and sound, back to worried parents and More...

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Oct 04, 2011

Jeffrey rated it:

This fictional novel is about Kit Watson, a thirteen-year-old boy, who moves to an old mining town called Stoneygate and begins living with his grandfather. The novel explores Kit’s relationships with his grandfather and the history of the old mining town around him. Over time this relationship grows through the fading memories of the grandfather and the new experiences that Kit gains within the same town. The novel explores the bleak world around them while staying fairly realistic to the setti More...

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Oct 04, 2011

Kirby rated it:

I grew up in an old coal-mining town in Kentucky. I never played death, probably because the miners still work there. However, the connection to the past and the land really resonated with me. The Askews and the Watsons are like the Steeles and the Cobbs, where I'm from. When people see me, they see my grandfather. He died when my mom was only six, but I know him. Sometimes it's like how Kit found his name on the monument, I feel like my ancestors live through me. I hear stories, see pictures, a More...

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Oct 04, 2011

Sarah rated it:

With a title that sounds misleadingly like an American Girl story, I had pretty low expectations for the book and no idea what it was about. My mistake. This book was WONDERFUL! Kit Watson has a gift for seeing ghosts and for storytelling, and these gifts enable him to befriend a boy deeply jaded and hurt by experiences in life. I did wonder sometimes if the themes were specific for a YA audience, since it wasn't your typical misunderstood teen/sexuality/identity exploration I think we too often More...

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Oct 03, 2011

Tayler rated it:

This was a very interesting, almost paranormal, fiction. However, it took a variety of sharp turns in numerous places.

Kit is from an old mining family and has just moved back to the old mining town where a few other children play a game called "Death." As he becomes better friends with Allie and Askew, Kit learns the importance of stories and how they can become truth.

So, for the first 50 pages or so, I thought Kit was a girl! But then again, I grew up on Americ More...

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Oct 03, 2011

Caroline rated it:

I was at first unsure about this novel, but was very pleased in the end that there was some sort of justification for exploring the darkness in this bleak YA novel. I thought Almond interesting weaved motifs of death,light, life, seasons, stories,friendship, love etc. throughout the narrative, and I found there to be very insightful passages through character dialogue and Kit's thoguhts. I also greatly appreciated how Almond addressed the dark that some people feel lost in but at the same time More...

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Oct 03, 2011

Ofa rated it:

THAT was a really good book. It was SOOOO creepy, but just for the fact that I was able to have that much of an emotional response speaks volumes for the effectiveness of the writing. It has alot of themes of death and motifs of re-birth. It would seem like a ghost story at first, but isn't so much a story about death as much as it is a story about life. It turns out to be a very uplifting read (read it in one day - -I split the read in two and the first night I was freaked out so much I couldn' More...

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Aug 01, 2011

Deborah rated it:

The story is a little odd, but I liked it. I really liked the writing. I kept getting distracted because I wanted to see what the author was doing to create his effects, but the story was compelling enough that I didn't want to analyze while I was reading it. A few hours after I finished this book, I started The Glamour of Grammar and realized that some of what created the tone was the simple sentence structures, often with subject/verb starts, and the setting set up with fragments, like this on More...

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Apr 05, 2011

Brenden rated it:

Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond is “pretty good.” This was not very easy for me to say however. After reading Almonds self-written introductory page “About the Author” I was disgusted with his pomposity and self-indulgent sticky self-approbation. It went something like this: “I’ve published lots of fiction for adults, and I’ve won a lot of prizes. I’m a great writer, and I even write my novels in a dilapidated old mansion, I rock!” Despite my genuine and immediate dislike for the author, I read More...

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Apr 04, 2011

Sara rated it:

This book is about a boy who moves to a small, former mining town. As the new kid in town he faces the challenge of fitting in and making new friends. Eventually he gets involved with a group of friends that are interested in things that involve the supernatural. This causes some tension in the town because of the history that is there in relation to the mine. Kit's grandfather was a key part in the history of the town and the book goes through his journey to understanding it.

Personall More...

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Apr 03, 2011

Maddy rated it:

This book is a coming-of-age novel, featuring a teenage boy named Kit in an aging Welsh mining town. Kit quickly falls in with a mysterious crowd at school and finds himself in the middle of a dark legend.
There were aspects of this novel that I both enjoyed and found daunting. When beginning this novel, I had no expectations or suspicions as to what the story might entail. With all the other books we’ve read, I have had a general idea as to what to expect and gain from the story. I wa More...

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Apr 03, 2011

Devon rated it:

If you like strange, eery and slightly confusing novels, Kit’s Wilderness is a must read. However, if that kind of book is not your cup of tea, then Kit’s Wilderness is one book that you can skip reading without any remorse. The plot of this book seemed to go absolutely nowhere. The story was a little intriguing with the idea of ghosts and the figures that Kit and Askew could see, but the relation of the ghostly figures to the actual plot never really seemed to connect. It did not seem like a lo More...

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Jan 07, 2011

Sharon rated it:

I really love David Almond's writing style. Sometimes I question whether children or teens would really love it as much as I do, but it's a very different style for youth: creepy, atmospheric, and lyrical in a wholly different way than the plethora of dark teen fantasy available right now. Its devoid of almost all pop-culture references (I was actually a little jarred to read a Megadeth T-shirt described at one point) and seems much more timeless.

Similar to Skellig, a lot of this book, More...

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Jun 14, 2010

Rachel rated it:

I didn't really know what to think about this book. It was very interesting, and I couldn't put it down at times. I wanted to know what would happen next.

In this story, Kit, a 13-year-old boy, moves to the old mining town of his ancestors. There, he meets John Askew, who invites him to play the game of death. Only children with ancestors who worked in the mine were invited to play this game. The crawl down into the mouth of the mine and one of them is chosen to "die." Supp More...

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Jun 11, 2010

Justin rated it:

I'm still not sure what I think about this book. The story is fictitious but is also a type of mystery. It focuses on the young protagonist, Kit Watson, and his acclamation to living in a new place. Kit moves to a mining town and does not have a lot of friends until he meets trouble maker John Askew and more pleasant character names Allie. The kids hang out in an abandoned mine where they play a game pretending to be dead and see the spirits of those who died in the mines. The only problem is th More...

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Jun 04, 2010

Talese rated it:

Kit’s grandmother has died so his family decides to move to Stoneygate to be with their grandfather. Stoneygate is an old coal-mining town where men and children were forced to work in the mines. Many deaths occurred in the mines. Kit is approached by the mysterious John Askew who befriends him because both of their families have a history of working in the mines. John invites Kit to play a game called “Death”. Initially, Kit does not want to go but he is intrigued by John Askew and feels himsel More...

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Dec 23, 2009

Katherine rated it:

I found Kit’s Wilderness to be too foreign for my taste which honestly surprised me since I’m normally a fan of anything out of the ordinary. I enjoy fantasy immensely as well as science fiction. I can say that I enjoyed the writing style and detail included in the descriptions of the characters as they developed throughout the story. Understanding Kit’s grandfather and what he’d experienced as a coal miner was essential I believe to understanding Kit himself.

I found the character of More...

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Feb 27, 2011

Carly rated it:

Kit's Wilderness left me with a dark, anxious, and insecure feeling as if I were wandering in a bleak and barren moonlit forest in December. Young Kit Watson moves back to his family's home-town to help care for his grandfather after his grandmother's death. Needing friends, he is drawn to accept an invitation to play the game of "death" by a collection of kids in the town. The game opens his mind to the realm of his dead ancestors who once mined in the town and filling his mind with v More...

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Oct 04, 2011

Tara rated it:

Honestly, I don't even know if I liked this book or not. It was weird- really, really weird. But I did appreciate the writing, it was captivating and engaging but very gruesome at parts. There is a good chance that I am not a very good reader or something, but a lot of times when reading this I felt like I had no idea what was going on. There were so many stories being woven in that it was hard for me to keep track of what they all meant and how they related and who was supposed to represent wha More...

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Mar 24, 2011

Kaylee rated it:

The story told in the book Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond is an eerie and haunted one. Beginning with a scene of children playing a strange game of Death, it then tells Kit’s adventure moving to the town of his ancestors. When he starts attending his new school, he meets a boy named John Askew whose ancestors were also from the town. He invites Kit to join a group of children in the Death ceremony, but when a teacher follows Kit and discovers what they are doing, it is forced to a stop. John i More...

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Feb 05, 2012

Jo rated it:

When 13 year old Christopher, known as Kit, Watson, comes to live in the ex mining town of Stoneygate he is coming to a land where his roots run deep. His paternal grandmother has died and he and his parents have relocated from Newcastle to take care of his elderly grandfather. As he comes to terms with life in a small village his grandfather shows him the local landmarks, where the mines lie under the ground leaving hollows and humps scarring the landscape. He tells him tales of the pits and More...

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Oct 25, 2011

Amy rated it:

I'm torn between really loving the imaginative story and easy, beautiful prose that's written by Almond, and greatly disliking some of the other aspects of this book. This is a really good story. It leaves the reader wondering whether it's truly a tale with some supernatural twists or simply a story about the strength of imagination that links two boys, creating a strong bond of friendship that can't be broken. Occasionally, I felt it was difficult to truly like the characters. The dialogue More...

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Oct 03, 2011

Alyssa rated it:

Kit's Wilderness is a fictional book about Kit and his relationship with the boy John Askew and with Kit's grandfather when Kit moves to the mining town Stoneygate. I was surprised when I saw the ratings for this book because I really loved the book and easily gave it a 5. I thought the book explored a side of bleak literature while still maintaining a realistic stance on bleakness in life by including happiness and hope within the work. Although I admit that some of the scenes with the ghost More...

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Jul 14, 2010

Wags rated it:

Kit moves to an English village that used to center around coal-mining. He enters a world where life and death and ancestry become intertwined within the harsh internal and external landscape.
David Almond amazed me with this book. I did not expect to like such a dark read, but I loved it. The story is intriguing on its own, and yet transcends. It is eerie and sophisticated. Mystical, mythical, imaginative, and believable.

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Dec 08, 2010

Lisa rated it:

Themes: light/darkness, change, death, peer pressure, supernatural elements, redemption

I can't say enough good about this book. It was amazing. Christopher Watson, a boy who loves to write stories, is the quiet, new kid in the mining town of Stoneygate in northern England, where most of his ancestors also lived. Shortly after he arrives, he learns that he shares a name with a boy who died in the mine 100+ years before, and because of this distinguishing characteristic, he is invited t More...

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Jun 27, 2009

Katherine rated it:

I really can't decide what I think. There were moments of greatness and moments of terrible boredom and let-down. Overall, it's clean enough and richly layered enough to make a good whole-class read. I think it would be an especially great recommendation to that weird kid in your class who writes brilliant stories all the time just for fun. The beginning would be a decent read-aloud to teach setting's relationship to mood, tension and suspense, foreshadowing, dialect, etc. It also takes an More...

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May 13, 2009

Andrew rated it:

5Q 4P MJS

Kit is a young man in transition. He and his family have moved to a remote mining village in England to take care of his ailing Grandfather who moves in and out of moments of reality and dreams. Kit loves the stories of the village's past. They are tales of suspense and adventure of former souls who roamed the surrounding wilderness. Viewed as an outcast in his new school, Kit makes friends with the eccentric Allie Keenan and draws the attention of the mysterious Askew. More...

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Apr 05, 2011

Spring rated it:

David Almond wrote a good story, a good one, I will not discredit him by saying it did not reflect a talented writer, but it was not great, phenomenal, or incredible. The book was pieced together well; I was impressed how the life of Askew was paralleled by the story of Lak. I appreciated how Almond inserted a story into a story; he did this extremely well with the darker themes, and also with the power of friendship. The book at times was having me sit up in my crisp, white, hotel room sheets, More...

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